Trattoria Valdarno

I came here with my family on a Thursday night and had a really nice evening. It was our first time and there was quite a few people for Thursday night but it was a nice atmosphere. The staff were attentive which was nice.
The food was great. I had the lamb shank special which I recommend and everyone else has a seafood pasta which they all enjoyed. We shared the arancini balls to start and the garlic bread. The arancini was nice and had different varieties but the garlic bread wasn’t good. The garlic was completely raw and it felt like it was burning my mouth and everyone couldn’t eat it. I also stunk like garlic from one bite of that bread for 5 days! 5 whole days! It wasn’t pleasant lol.
I would def go back. It’s a nice relaxed atmosphere and was perfect for the type if night we were looking for– just relaxed. Besides needing to change the garlic bread overall it’s pretty good for the local Italian.

Came here with a big group of around 30 people after an art exhibition round the corner.
I think Italian food is one of my favorites, spaghetti bog and carbonara gets me every time but as I am currently ‘on a diet’, *cough cough* (had spaghetti bog last night for dinner) I decided to get a classic chicken salad instead :(
I actually do like chicken salads but this, this was more resembling a garden with a few tiny chickens hidden deep inside. There was something very wrong with the salad to chicken ratio!
Also there was no dressing so I had to use what little juices the pieces of chicken had to make the salad not so dry.
My boyfriend had some sort of pasta which I can not remember, this was okay but nothing to break a diet over.
The staff were a little bossy and kept turning the air conditioner off in the section of the restaurant our huge group was occupying.
Not sure why on Earth they would do this as it was already a warm night.
Some of the people we were sitting with had to continue to ask for it back on and in the end what seemed like the Boss came out and rudely gave my boyfriend the air con remote to control.
Didn’t really feel like we were in a classy restaurant being ‘waited on’, felt like our own dining room!
Mehhhh!

I went to Valdarno’s with a pretty big group, and knowing it would be busy we made a reservation. We turned up just on time, with a few tables in the restaurant occupied, but not really busy at all, only to be informed that our table wasn’t ready yet. We waited 10 minutes to be seated and were then put at a table which not only didn’t have enough seats, but was so crammed that we could not move.
Luckily I was enjoying the company of the people around me, so I wasn’t in such a bad mood, and still had high hopes for the night (which were not met). The staff were of mixed quality — we had one really lovely waitress and then a waiter who was very rude and dropped all the dishes at one end of the table so we had to sort them out ourselves (I know it sounds lazy but I’m not going to a restaurant to do things for myself).
Then the food arrived, and to be honest I was a little bit disappointed. We had arancini for starters and they tasted (and looked) like they had come from the freezers at the supermarket and been put in the oven for a few minutes. I had the spaghetti bol for mains, which is a dish I always adore but this one didn’t quite sit right with me. Whether it was too tomato-​y or too salty or not enough bay leaves I can’t decide but it doesn’t really matter. The point of my story is that I didn’t actually finish my dish, which is something pretty rare.
All in all, a pretty average restaurant and if you’re going to spend this much money on Italian food you might as well go round the corner to Zucchero’s (am I allowed to say that?)

My wife and I love this place. Reasonable prices, friendly service and great quality italian food. It is packed full of locals almost every night of the week, so make sure you book.